The church John Menzies built...

Press, 29 July 1976, Page 17

The church John Menzies built...

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NANCY CAWLEY

Like all the bays of Banks Peninsula, Little Akaloa has a flavour all its own and a pioneering history rich in incident, it has seen floods, bushfires, epidemics, shipwrecks, and Maori wars; and the establishment and decay of homesteads and holding.. The pleasant slopes where farms and holidayhouses stand today were once covered in thick bush, and it was this that

attracted the first saw-mil-ling settlers in 1850. In little over 20 years they had cleared the valley. Today’s casual visitor to Little Akaloa might be excused for missing the most significant building in the bay. It is St Luke’s Anglican Church which stands on the hill, well above the eastern end of the beach, hidde- in a grove of oaks and native trees. This simple, grey

roughcast church is pleasing enough on the outside, but inside it is startling in its beauty. In his early book, “Canterbury Pilgrimage,” Canon Stephen Parr compares St Luke’s to the churches of Franz Josef and Tekapo. But whereas these churches rely for much of their impact on their outside Surroundings, the beauty of St Luke’s lies in the wealth of Maori designs and carvings that decorate a greater part of the interior. They are all the work of one exceptional man, John Henry Menzies (1840-1919) of Menzies Bay, originally of Liverpool.

The first services at Little Akaloa were taken by the Reverend Henry Torlesse of Okains Bay, at first under a tree, and then in a barn, on the coastal property of Mr Arthur Waghorn, in the

1860 s. Mr George Bishop, schoolmaster and layreader, often officiated at services and burials, in the absence of a resident vicar.

In 1865 he buried nine victims of a diptheria epidemic at The Long Lookout, the eastern headland of the bay. A commemorative plaque in the present church lists their names. Both Bishops Selwyn and Harper preached in the barn, arriving by sea as most did and helping to haul the boat ashore.

In 1863, an all-purpose building was built just above the beach, and was used as a school, meetingroom, or church according to need. Later, enlarged and altered, it became wholely a church when a new school was built, and

in 1882 Bishop Harper consecrated it as the first St Luke’s Church. At this time, the idea of a church built of more permanent materials prompted Arthur Waghorn, whose bam had been so useful, to give a piece of his. land as a future church site. By 1905 the community had raised $BOO towards a new church, a sum which came far below any tender. But John Henry Menzies, a landowner in adjacent Menzies Bay, and at the time in his late sixties, came to the rescue with an offer to build the church, with help. His son, Stephen, later wrote: “Whatever the church finally cost no-one knew.” So began John Menzies’s labour of love. John Menzies’s life-long

hobby of carving began during his school-days at Cheam, in Surrey. Even when travelling, his current piece of carving and an assortment of chisels and gouges went- with him, often making up the greater part of his luggage.

At Menzies Bay, he extensively decorated the interiors of three homesteads. Two were destroyed by fire, along with a valuable collection of Maori patterns, but the surviving homestead, "Rehutai,” is today the home of the Reverend lan H. Menzies and his wife.

“The Story of Menzies Bay,” published in 1970, by the Reverend Menzies, continues a family history written by his grandfather more than 60 years ago. In “Rehutai” stands a much-cherished writingdesk, which the Reverend Menzies considers to be the best example of his

grandfather’s art. It is decorated with carved Mount Cook lilies and mountain daisies, and inside is carved— What I was is passed by, What I am away doth fly, What I will be none do see, Yet in that my beauties be. John Menzies came to New Zealand in 1860, when he was 20. He had attended the University of Edinburgh and received brief agricultural training in Yorkshire. After 18 years farming in Southland, he brought his wife and seven children to Menzies Bay (then called Mclntosh Bay after the previous owners) and built up a fruitful mixed farm. For 50 years he refused to have a road put in, limiting access to the homestead to the sea or horseback.

A man of great determination and energy, John Menzies went full tilt at any project he undertook. Men working on his land would be warned of his approach by the sound of his sonorous singing, as he rode up on his horse, Aaron.

During the year that he worked on the church, Menzies lived in a bach on the site for much of the time, riding the seven miles between Little Akaloa and Menzies Bay when the mood took him, and doing much of the carving at home. The Reverend Menzies writes: “He was an extraordinary fast worker, very rarely using a mallet, relying on a strong wrist and a deft hand.”

Many of the materials used in the building of St Luke’s were acquired locally. The exterior concrete walls are roughcast with pebbles and chips of paua shell from the Little Akaloa beach, and the structural timbers were cut and milled on the hill above, at Chorlton. Inside, Mount Somers stone, as are the elaborately-carved altar, pulpit and font.

These contrast with the dark wood of the altar rails and lectem which are inset with paua. Such is the extent and variety of the decoration in this unique little church, that one marvels that it was substantially the work of one dedicated man. It is a lively memorial to its creator, and a plaque by the entrance door notes that:

“In the year of our Lord 1906, to the glory of God, this church was built designed and carved by J. H. Menzies, also F. A. A’Court, chief worker in wood and stone, C. F. A’Court, A. H. Stace, D. J. Waghorn and J. Bennett did faithful work. Praise the Lord.” A successful restoration appeal in 1954 allowed the re-roofing of the church with slates from Penrhyn, Wales, and the bracing of the walls. Today, as part of the Eastern Bays Parish, St Luke’s flourishes under the guidance of the Reverend L. H. Kyle of Okains Bay, and a local committee.